Category Archives: Maladies

Aging: The Hommmme

One day I passed an elderly lady sitting in a wheelchair outside her room … Our eyes met, and I said “Hi.” She returned the most beautiful smile. A decade ago Mrs. R. belonged to a most collegial bridge group of eight ladies — two tables. They played every Thursday at one of the member’s […]

Stroke: Best Defense Is A Healthy Offense

“Experts say that fully 80% of all strokes are preventable.   No kidding — 80%! “ HERE’S A NAME YOU DON’T HEAR EVERY DAY: Johann Jakob Wepfer. He was a Swiss pharmacologist and pathologist who lived from 1620 to 1695 — a remarkable life span for a person of that era. To put that in historical […]

Health: When Life Overwhelms

“It was through [Louella’s] column and other news stories that I came to know about Wynn. My Mom would read me her syndicated reports in the newspaper…” by Dave Riley In the mid-1940’s, when I was a grade schooler at Mary Snow in Bangor, my Uncle Wynn Rocamora was a very successful agent in Hollywood. […]

Maladies: Mrs. R. Returns Home

“…she could scream, cuss and even kick me, which she never does, and I wouldn’t mind it a bit.” by Dave Riley MY REGULAR BLOG POST will return next Wednesday, but for this week I just want to follow up on Mrs. R’s illness. After sixteen days in the krankenhaus, she has finally returned home. […]

Maladies: When Your Lifelong Love Hits the Wall

“This certainly is a bump,” she said at last. by Dave Riley THE INTRO TO THIS BLOG says, in part, it’s about “how all seniors have hurdles to face — maladies, loss of loved ones and more.” Well Mrs. R. and I are rather in one of those situations now. The day before Thanksgiving she […]

Aging: Arnie, Soledad Mexia and the Fountain of Youth

The latest episode in the semi-fictional biography of Joshua Bateman Arnold.  by Dave Riley IT WAS A LAZY SATURDAY MORNING, and, as we frequently do, Mrs. R. and I, along with our neighbor Arnie, who has been enjoying an extended vacation from this blog, were sitting in the backyard reading. Mrs. R. was perusing a […]

Politics: Can We Talk?

“Don’t ever forget that you’re a citizen of this world, and there are things you can do to lift the human spirit, things that are easy, things that are free, things that you can do every day. Civility, respect, kindness, character.” by Dave Riley RECENTLY GREG SARGENT of the Washington Post penned the following: Hillary Clinton’s […]

Aging: Those Who Would Live Forever

By Dave Riley “[Researchers] administered telomerase to a group of mice suffering from age-related degeneration. The result? The damage went away. The mice didn’t just get better; they got younger.” ROBERT ETTINGER DIED FOUR YEARS AGO at age 92. He hadn’t intended to. He spent his entire professional life looking forward to living forever. Sort […]

Phobias: The Curse of Stage Fright — Part Two

You’ve just been elected secretary of your senior citizens club, and in a few days you have to get up in front of everyone and give a report. But you’re scared to death. Scared? No, you’re petrified. Not to worry. You can do it. Read on. IF YOU HAVEN’T READ last Wednesday’s post, Phobias: the […]

Phobias: The Curse of Stage Fright — Part One

  “There are two kinds of people in the world: those who admit they are nervous speaking in front of an audience, and those who lie about it.”  By Dave Riley THE SCENE WAS A HUMANITIES CLASSROOM  in a high school in Massachusetts back in the day — way back. One by one, students were giving […]